~ My thoughts in my words

Monthly Archives: November 2008

My lovely car is lying back home, and I am unable to use it. the sadder part is that I had to leave it before it was even a year with me. My Dad says that the car needs to run, and so he makes sure that it runs a couple of km daily. Though its not fuel efficient to do so, but at least there is some oil circulation that keeps it running.

Mapping the car story on the human body, it also needs exercise and some blood circulation to keep fit. So taking advantage of the good weather out here (finally) and my place of stay, I decided to jog to Juhu. It felt effortless to run all the way from Santacruz via linking road and Juhu Road. I didn’t plan to hit the beach, but when I did, I found at least 5000 people scattered and enjoying the Sunday morning. Most of them were playing cricket; and I found some badminton and football players as well. The oldies were having a gala time walking or jogging, some were found splashing salty water.

The therapeutic effects of running (or jogging) is very well known. As with the car, it gives the much needed blood circulation, it helps in reducing fat, and most importantly, it keeps you happy!! I wish I could go everyday.

Overall, my total jog time of 42 minutes gave me my well deserved hunger. And while I finish my breakfast to rush for my office, I am keying this blog.

It’s good to have an unexpected holiday. But not always. Post 9/11, its Mumbai’s sad day today; or rather yesterday. Last night I was disturbed by calls and decided to switch off my mobile without accepting any of them. And I was enlightened by the news on TV this morning: that terror attacks have actually cast a black mark in the history.

It was good to find people caring about me, and I was inundated with calls as I switch on my mobile. But the fact remained that the city that never sleeps was made to come to a standstill by militants who had the audacity to commit such a horrendous crime. This one is an epitome of organized crime.

In recent times, the lull of recession has not yet seeped into the lives of the public. To add to the trouble, we now have terrorism blankly staring at us. In recent times such attacks have become more and more blatant and vengeful. No longer do we find the out of work individuals contributing to the mayhem, but it’s from the elite section of the society planning out the gory details.

India is on the global map for the wrong reasons. And so is Pakistan, since we now know that the motor vehicle used came from Karachi. Even though the PM Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani has condemned the attack like his world counterparts, unquestionably it is a blow to his image, since he has not been able to stop the breeding of terrorism, which often happens at the primary level, the madarsas. This institution of Islamic education are known to inspire the youth towards terrorism, and they are made to believe that deliverance lies in dying for Allah. The sane world knows that no God will ever accept such inhuman acts. But what to do when the minds are filled with hatred?

From the point of view of the budding militants, they are doing whats right. And no amount of logical reasoning helps. That’s the power of human mind that has as much ability to cause mayhem, as much to work for the good of the society. The governments must focus on the roots of such militancy, or it wont be long when the world comes to an end!!

I’ve been sitting at home all day watching the mind game at Nariman point. For me it was a holiday to finish up some of my pending tasks, but I am not really complaining!!

As the user acceptance testing moved forward and members got more appreciative, distressed signals could be felt from one corner. It was slowly getting evident that this section saw ERP as a tool that could change their lives forever, taking away what they valued the most: power and importance.

The finance department at my client place had utmost importance. After all, the objective of any company is to make money, and those that deal with them are the all powerful. But their power was substantiated with their ability to access information that others didn’t, thanks to the legacy systems that did not have much networking potential. The fact that the system allowed the sales team to issue the materials out to the customer without the usual physical credit check obviating the presence of the finance team, made it evident that the hold was slipping away to the mammoth known as SAP.

The above is just one of the aspects of cultural change that happens once an ERP system is in place. Professionals are freed from the mundane aspects of work, it frees up a lot of time to do more critical (and strategic) tasks. But when they are used to working in a closed environment, distress is imminent.

So what to do in such a situation? Companies must have a change management strategy in place to address such human issues. It is evident that the ERP is taken as a tool for change agent, but in the absence of a sympathetic view of things, it might just get out of hand, with the potential to blow up the implementation altogether. The change agent must constantly sound the stakeholders of the possible consequences, highlighting the benefits they would gain after such an exercise.

It is often seen that post implementation, the core team members join ERP consulting firms since they do not find themselves useful in their existing role. It is important that they get better roles in the organization after the implementation is complete. Management needs to be forward looking to make sure there are sufficient requirements in their scope which can be addressed by expansion (after all, once of the objectives of an ERP implementation is control on a larger scale).

Monetary incentives have their importance to par the existing market rates. That’s a premium the company needs to pay for the additional skills their employees would have. Overall, a paradigm shift in processes is needed to align with the strategic objectives.

Looking a the lighter (stinkier) side, BOM explosion took a new meaning in the production planning arena… of the humanitarian aspects of explosion post a heavy meal.

I happened to view another aspect of the change: the senior sales core team member who keeps a laptop but finds it difficult to copy and paste; is interested to know if SAP can be accessed from the retail shops!!

A B grade movie with a producer / actor who has lot of money to lose … this movie was released last Friday. I haven’t managed to watch it, but I am overwhelmed at the audacity of KRK to bring out such a love piece of crap…. Look at the following link (a lovely description indeed)

Pangs of hunger attack every normal human, and having the right lunch at the right time makes sure you are hungry by the time it’s the time for the day to end. My recent long hours in office is making sure I get the attacks every working day. And there is no easy solution!

My office is at Worli, and to counter the evening pangs, I have considered all available (and practical) options. But none of them is sustainable over the long term. To add to the troubles, wading through the traffic on Annie Besant Road is no easy task. And you have to minimize the time lost.
So what options are available for the hungry me? A casual look at the canteen tells that it is closed for the day (they have strict business hours, the doors close dot at 1635). Venturing out on the road, there is a stall selling delicacies by the names of ragada pattice, ragada puri, pani puri and the like. I have tried it a couple of times, but somehow it ends up giving me an uneasy feeling, something with the oil? Going forward, there is a woman selling bananas (now that’s instant energy, but how long that energy will last is anybody’s guess). Towards the ICICI bank, there is the most popular chai wala, the dosa wala, vada pao stall and (of course) the sandwich. I have tried all of them, but none of them seems to be interesting. Crossing the road takes me to the restaurant Panchamruth, which has transformed itself into a takeaway one. Having an establishment gives it the liability to charge a VAT for the value added, which it feels free to pass on to the customers. One quick look at the menu will tell you that they serve all south Indian dishes and everything that is available around. The quality seems to be better than the others!

Moving to the other side Annie Besant Road, there is another sandwich wala, daab wala, fruits wala and the like. There are a couple of udipis as well, plus the regular pav bhaji and the like. That would get too heavy for the snack, but worth the consideration. More sandwiches on the way, bhutta, and again more fried vada and samosas with pav.

Health conscious that I am, I try to avoid the high calorie materials, and often settle for a sandwich, a fruit plate or in the worst case, a biscuit. Docs say that this evening snack can go a long way in adding to one’s tyres. I try to stick to the better options, par control nahi hota!

“Don’t jinx it by talking about it”, is an oft heard statement. A lot of people believe in it; the cat comes out of the bag only when the time is ripe. But what if I show a glimpse of the cat which is struggling to come out of the bag…well, you end up in a jinx.

I never believed in such things till recently. That was because I never revealed anything before it actually happened. Moving to Mumbai has given me a new set of experiences. In my attempt to be more human (and humans socialize), I talked about good things that could happen to me…and unknowingly even asking for their good wishes. Yet whenever I revealed the possibility, invariably it would hit a stumbling block, or in common parlance, get jinxed.

I can never blame the people I tell, because I believe they are my well wishers. Yet there is something that makes a jinx what it is..a misfortune that makes sure good things do not happen.

I will not reveal what made me think on these lines for want of privacy, but I have come to believe in its existence, since I can see a pattern of things ‘not happening’. By the grace of God, it isn’t misfortune, but the spurt of good fortune gets beaten down, bringing me back to where I was.

Call it jinx? I may start doing so. And so I will not let things out before the time is ripe. Life is all about learning, isn’t it?

Scene 1: You are a professional, and your environment is conducive for work. Your needs are taken care of, and you are given all the facilities (a desk, a chair, stationery, water, beverages and a peaceful environment)

Scene 2: You are in a chaotic environment in between loud discussions, banter, meetings all happening at the same place in the name of togetherness. There is always someone to disturb you, and the facilities are far from your easy reach.

In which scene do you find yourself getting more productive? You might as well say that it depends on the kind of work being done. For those that require application of gray cells, probably the former would be the choice. And for the kind of work that is boring and can only be lightened by the disturbances, the second one is preferable.

When one needs to think deep on his own and is thrown into scene 2, the output will be close to negligible. Similarly, if one needs to do a no brainer job and is put in scene 1, he might as well be seen yawning, if not nodding off.

Having seen the first scene till now in my previous organizations, scene 2 comes as a major pain to me. Unfortunately it is the scene 2 that happens in most of the manufacturing organizations in India. The reason is simple: most people are doing things they have been doing since eternity, sans any element of challenge or any excitement. I have had the opportunity to see both the worlds, and find myself uncomfortable in the former. There is a major cultural difference in the two scenes, which often represent different era.

Being a consultant, I have to think of solutions. Unfortunately my thinking happens more on my way to work and back instead of in office. And so to make myself more productive, I discovered a vending machine (I had to certify which department I was working for), and made it a routine to pick up a cup of coffee and a paper and sit in the parking lot (alone). Yet this was seen as too casual and I was asked to stop this practice by someone who tries to yield power in his domain (the so called canteen). And so coffee was out of reach. Come 4:30 pm, the canteen winds up, and you don’t even get to replenish the water bottle, leave out any beverage. This is a system people have been living with (because they have been doing it)

What kind of management encourages such practices? Perhaps only that which believes in the theory X, giving scant respect to the individual. The basic essence of such a feeling comes from the fact that companies of the pre independence era still follow the technique of the British (hum angrezo ke zamane ke…)

Management must wake up to the fact that the times are changing, and to keep up with the environment, human capital needs to be nurtured. Culture is made by people, and when people belong to the times of yore, things do not change.

I might sound somber, but I couldn’t find another place to put down my interesting experiences.

I love challenges, and the environment poses the biggest challenge in a project! I am learning from it

Sometime back Neha made an interesting statement, “everyone seems ok as long as you dont have a stake in them”. She was referring to her predicament that required her to evaluate prospective grooms for herself. And so judgments changed from ‘How good that person is’ to ‘Is he good enough for me?’ i was left wondering, being in such an evaluation stage myself, isnt it that we start looking with e different filter when we realise we have a stake? And so choosing a partner requires a bigger evaluation than choosing a friend!

In the corporate world, we meet people, may even like to spend some time with them. But when it comes to having that person as a boss or a subordinate, equations change drastically. They are no longer friends, but a boss / reportee in the guise of a friend. I have read of cases where a person, once promoted to be the boss of his erstwhile colleagues, starts feeling differently. T thought it was envy no the part of the left outs, but the real problem was because the flaws that were previously transparent, came to the surface. And because the boss’s performance depends on tat of his subordinates, stakes were different now!

When people seek advice, and there are too meany ready to give. But when it comes to ownership, it might not be the same.

Its so nice to be a consultant without a stake in the client’s business!